American politics

The Gaza flotilla

Violent protest is actually more effective

Jun 1st 2010, 16:44by M.S.

STRATFOR'S George Friedman correctly writes that the Gaza Freedom Flotilla "achieved its strategic mission. It got Israel to take violent action against it. In doing so, Israel ran into its own fist." To extend and repeat what I wrote yesterday, I think another big point you have to take away from this episode is that employing a bit of violence in your protest, enough to provoke a murderous reaction, is more effective than eschewing violence altogether. Five of the six ships taken over by Israeli commandos put up no resistance. They didn't make the news. The sixth, the Mavi Marmara, had about 600 passengers on board, and of those, 570 or so appear to have stayed below deck as the commandos arrived. They didn't make the news either. The other 30 went up on deck. As is clear in video of the clash released over the past day, they attacked the commandos as they landed one by one, beating them with metal pipes and chairs, trying to strip their body armor and guns, and throwing them over the side of the ship. This led the commandos to respond with live ammunition, ultimately killing at least nine protestors.

That made the news.

It's difficult to fathom some of the decisions taken by the Israel Defense Forces in planning the interdiction. Why board the ship rather than disabling and towing it? Why use helicopters to rappel onto the deck one by one, vulnerable to the mob? If the intent was to surprise and overwhelm the passengers, why not break off the attempt when it was clear they were not surprised or overwhelmed? If the intent was to provoke violence among the protestors and win a propaganda victory, why not board the ship in daylight hours and invite the international media along? The shooting that ensued once the soldiers were on board, however, is not hard to understand. The soldiers were armed with paint-ball guns and pistols, and clearly had come planning on a crowd-control exercise; a massacre could have been more easily accomplished by firing from the helicopters. They fired on protestors because they were outnumbered and under attack. Avital Leibovich, an IDF spokeswoman, has been widely ridiculed for saying the soldiers faced "a lynch", but that is in fact what the video looks like: soldiers on the ground being beaten with pipes by an angry mob.

But here's the thing: the violence employed by those 30 protestors is what achieved the Freedom Flotilla's goals. No metal pipes, no Israeli shooting. No Israeli shooting, no dead protestors. No dead protestors, no recall of the Turkish ambassador or emergency UN Security Council meeting. The protestors who swung those pipes risked their own (and others') lives; some of them are probably dead now. And, unlike the ones who joined arms below deck and sang "Kumbaya", they succeeded in weakening the international negotiating position of Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians, placed the Gaza blockade on the international agenda, and may ultimately topple the Israeli government. Lesson: if you're willing to die for your cause, punch a soldier in the face and try to get him to shoot you. It'll get you a lot further than stuffing flowers in gun barrels.